It's been a great couple of weeks for those of us who value qualifications in engineering and related sectors, as a glut of new research has shown just how much they are valued by both learners and employers.

Firstly, the Industry Apprentice Council report, supported by Semta Group and published last month, shows that out of 1,200 apprentices drawn from engineering and related sectors, 90% valued the formal qualification embedded within their apprenticeships. The report says that apprentices like qualifications as a measure of "the specific competencies an apprentice has learned" and for the transferability they offer.

To celebrate National Women in Engineering Day, we've a guest blog from Ann Watson, Chief Executive of Semta

This time last year, my rallying cry was to “keep up this momentum so that, in a year's time, we have even more women in engineering to celebrate”. It is, once again, International Women in Engineering Day today – and although we remain stuck at just nine per cent of the sector’s workforce being female, there is nonetheless reason to remain upbeat and hopeful.

We all, as a sector, know we need to boost the numbers of women in engineering if we’re to beat the upcoming skills crisis. We cannot hope to draw the estimated 1.8 million new entrants to the sector from an exclusively male talent pool, and nor should we want to do so either, as to do so would be to miss out on not just the talent of the women who could go on to become great engineers, but also their perspectives on the sector. The engineering sector is reaching out to girls and women – we have the social media-based Nine Percent Is Not Enough campaign, individual employers are doing what they can to build a more diverse and inclusive sector (e.g. Rolls-Royce’s 50:50 gender balance for work experience programmes), and today Semta, the ICE and the WISE campaign launch a diversity toolkit for STEM apprenticeships.

The apprenticeship levy is finally here.

Employers with a payroll of over £3m will pay 0.5% of that payroll out in levy, and will then get it back (plus 10%) to spend on apprenticeships training, certification and – where included within a framework or standard – qualifications. They will be able to spend their apprenticeship vouchers with any training provider that’s on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers.

The government wants 3 million apprenticeships during the lifetime of this Parliament (2015-20), and the levy is one tool being used to encourage employers who don’t take on many (if any) apprentices at the moment to increase their numbers. As we drive towards 3 million starts we must take care not to dilute the quality of apprenticeships. Although they’re not required, many of the newly developed apprenticeship standards include recognised qualifications, which employers have pushed for as they give apprentices real evidence of their transferable skills and competences.

To celebrate the launch of National Apprenticeship Week 2017, we have a guest blog from Ann Watson, Chief Executive of Semta

I’m delighted, as the head of the organisation championing skills in advanced manufacturing and engineering, to lend my support to National Apprenticeship Week. But the truth is that in the sectors that Semta represents, we don’t just have one week a year dedicated to apprenticeships – they are a tried and tested route into an engineering career, with around a quarter of the sector’s workforce having undertaken one and board members at a number of our most famous household names having done so too. Employers in engineering go into schools and colleges all year round to promote apprenticeships as a strong and valued way into the sector, and they have so many programmes and initiatives up and running to show young people why they should start one.

Quality has been a watchword in engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships for a long time. If you undertake an engineering apprenticeship, you do so in the knowledge that you’re doing something which has been refined over many decades by employers – it’s a tried and tested way to bring new talent into the sector. Employers are now in charge of designing apprenticeships themselves, which means that when you start an engineering apprenticeship you can be certain that you will be gaining the skills employers really value and need.

This is such a fantastic time to be taking the reins at EAL, with so much policy change happening and so many exciting new opportunities opening up.

We may have launched our 25th anniversary celebrations at a special event in Parliament recently, and the framework in which we work may be set there, but the continued success of EAL will be made out in the field, by EAL learners and in EAL centres.

And that, after all, is why we do what we do at EAL. We know, because we work every single day with employers and our centres across the sectors we serve, that qualifications are vital in enabling them to have the confidence in the skills and competence of their workforces. We know too that learners value their qualifications as a way of giving them currency in a competitive and fast-changing jobs market. And we know from working with our centres just how passionate and dedicated those who deliver EAL qualifications are to maintaining rigour and quality in the skills system – EAL wouldn’t have the reputation we do without their hard work.

Our EAL centres are full of fantastic people – brilliant tutors, high-achieving learners and real champions of skills.

Yet how often do we or you shout about it? Not often enough in my view.

That’s why I am asking you to make sure this wealth of talent is recognised by entering or nominating your organisation, learners or an employer you’ve been working with for the prestigious Semta Skills Awards.

These are no ordinary awards – now in their fourth year, they honour the very best in British advanced manufacturing and engineering, giving the winners exposure to leading employers and the wider population, providing inspiration to others.

I am certain we can all name at least one apprentice, higher apprentice, graduate or skills champion who deserve to be recognised.